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North Korea: Blockade Could Lead to War
North Korea warned Tuesday that any economic blockade by the United States and its allies against the communist state could lead to a war that would include Japan.
They are persistant, I'll give them that. And, threatening a relatively defenseless Japan, isn't the worst idea.
On the other hand, if Japan decides not to be defenseless, they've brought themselves a real problem.
The warning came as the United States, Japan and Australia, began cracking down on the North Korean trade in illicit drugs, weapons and counterfeit money — believed to be key sources of hard currency for Pyongyang to buttress its regime and its suspected nuclear weapons programs. North Korea's main state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday charged that the United States is "laying an international siege to the North and putting a blockade against it as a premeditated scheme to start a new war on the Korean peninsula."
Ummm, It's not a "new" war. But, then again, we can't expect the Norks to check any facts.
North Korea will take "physical retaliation," including "all means and methods an independent country can take," if it concludes that the recent moves by the allies violate its sovereignty, Rodong said in a commentary monitored by South Korean news agency Yonhap. "There is no guarantee that this blockade will not lead to such a serious condition as a full-scale war," said Rodong. "If war breaks out between the North and the United States, it will not be limited to the Korean Peninsula but all the areas where aggressors are lurking will become our targets." North Korea accused Japan of turning itself into the "base camp for U.S. aggression against Korea." Separately, the mayor of Hiroshima has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to attend this year's memorial of the 1945 atomic bombing in protest of Pyongyang's plans to pursue nuclear weapons.
Man, how do we deal with that if he goes? We can get rid of him then, but how do we justify nuking Hiroshima twice?
I think the idea might be for him to see what those nukes he's so fond of would actually do. They don't think he comprehends it, and they're probably right.

Posted by: Mike N. 2003-06-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15555